Bruno Philippe

“Philippe’s principal virtues are the way he allows the music to dance and his easy, unforced manner of projection.” - Gramophone, April 2022

Born in 1993, Bruno Philippe studied the cello at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. From 2014-2018, he studied as a young soloist at the Kronberg Academy with Frans Helmerson and participated in masterclasses given by David Geringas, Steven Isserlis, Gary Hoffman, Pieter Wispelwey and Clemens Hagen at the Salzburg Mozarteum.

In 2018, Bruno Philippe was named ‘Instrumental Revelation’ at the Victoires de la Musique Classique. In 2014, he won the Nicolas Firmenich Prize at the Verbier Festival and then the Third Prize and the Audience Prize at the prestigious ARD International Competition in Munich. He also received “Special Prizes” at the Tchaikovsky International Competition in June 2015 and the Feuermann Competition in Berlin in November 2014. In 2015, Bruno was named “Classical Revelation of ADAMI” and in 2016, he won the Prix pour la Musique de la Fondation Safran for the cello. In 2017 he was a laureate of the Queen Elisabeth Competition, Brussels, and in 2022 was invited back to the competition to present on live TV station “Musiq3.”

Bruno Philippe has appeared in prestigious venues and festivals in France (Festival de Pâques, Aix-en-Provence, Philharmonie de Paris, Auditorium du Louvre, La Grange au Lac, Festival de Radio France Montpellier-Occitanie) and on the international scene, including the Berlin Konzerthaus, Alte Oper, Frankfurt, Teatro Colón, Bogotá and Bavarian Radio, Munich. Bruno has performed with many of Europe’s best orchestras including Radio-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, Dijon-Bourgogne Orchestra under Gabor Takács-Nagy, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin, Münchener Kammerorchester, Orchestre National de Bordeaux, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo.

Equally at ease on the chamber music platform, Bruno has performed alongside many prestigious artists including Gary Hoffman, Tabea Zimmermann, Gidon Kremer, Christian Tetzlaff, David Kadouch, Renaud Capuçon, Tanguy de Williencourt, Antoine Tamestit, Sarah Nemtanu, Lise Berthaud, Timothy Ridout, Stephen Waarts, Kian Soltani, Christophe Coin, Raphaël Pidoux and Cédric Tiberghien. An accomplished baroque cellist, Bruno has performed alongside Jean Rondeau, Thomas Dunford and Lea Desandre and regularly appears as a soloist in Ensemble Jupiter with whom he toured to the USA in spring 2022 (and again in 2023), to great critical acclaim. 

His first CD, devoted to Brahms’ Sonatas with Tanguy de Williencourt, was released in 2015 on the Evidence Classic label. In 2017, he joined harmonia mundi with a recording of works by Beethoven and Schubert. In 2019, he recorded Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christoph Eschenbach and in spring 2022, his latest album, J.S. Bach’s The Complete Cello Suites, was released, with Gramophone writing. 

Other recent highlights include debut performances with the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra and Christian Arming, Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin and Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne with Christoph Eschenbach, and chamber concerts with Antoine Tamestit in Köln, Cédric Tiberghien at the Hindsgavl Festival and a Carnegie Hall debut with Ensemble Jupiter. Bruno also held a residency with Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne.

The 2023-2024 season sees debuts with Royal Northern Sinfonia, Sinfónica de Tenerife and the Hallé Orchestra performing repertoire that includes Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1 and Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No. 1. In addition, Bruno will make his solo Wigmore Hall debut with pianist Tanguy de Williencourt (to coincide with his next album launch with harmonia mundi) and will perform solo Bach at the Flanders Festival, Gent.

Bruno Philippe plays a 1760 cello by Gennaro Gagliano kindly loaned to him through the Beare’s International Violin Society.

In 2015, 2017 and 2019 Bruno Philippe took part in the Kronberg Academy Festival where he was awarded the Leyda Ungerer Music Prize 2015. From 2014-2018 Bruno Philippe studied at Kronberg Academy with Frans Helmerson. These studies were funded by the Christa Verhein Stiftung.